page_title: Leyland Olympian
section_title: Construction
hierarchical_section_title: Leyland Olympian / Construction
caption_attribution_description: English: A 1992 Dublin Bus RH-class Alexander (Belfast) bodied Leyland Olympian double-decker, pictured at the 2008 Cobham bus rally in the UK. It was new to Dublin Bus as their dual-door fleet no. RH139 (reg. 92 D 139). Having been withdrawn in October 2006 and exported to Ensignbus, it's pictured here still in Dublin Bus livery and re-registered with UK plate J908 CEV, having had its centre door removed. It's since found its way to Cheltenham based coach operator Swanbrook, who are operating it in a green, white &amp; purple livery applied in a style reminiscent of the Dublin Bus blue, white &amp; orange livery which preceded this blue and yellow version.
context_page_description: The Leyland Olympian was a 2-axle and 3-axle double-decker bus chassis manufactured by Leyland between 1980 and 1993. It was the last Leyland bus model in production.
context_section_description: The Olympian had the same chassis and running gear as the Leyland Titan integral double deck bus which was ordered in large numbers by London Transport. At the time there was a demand for non-integral vehicles, because operators wished to have the chassis bodied by other manufacturers. Thus Leyland created the B45 project, which was named Olympian, in 1979. This was in many ways an update of the popular Bristol VRT (Bristol Commercial Vehicles merged with Leyland in 1965), with many VR customers choosing Olympians. Later the Olympian also replaced the Leyland Atlantean.
  The Olympian was unveiled at the 1980 Commercial Motor Show. It was available in two lengths, 9.56m and 10.25m. The engine was either the Leyland TL11 unit (a development of the Leyland O.680: both were of 11.1 litre capacity) or the Gardner 6LXB or 6LXCT. Some later Olympians had Cummins L10 engines. One Olympian had a 5LXCT.
  For the export market a three-axle version was built with lengths of 10.4m, 11.32m and 11.95m. This was very popular with operators such as Kowloon Motor Bus. In 1988, Leyland developed an air-conditioned version of the Olympian, with the refrigerant compressor driven by the main engine instead of a separate engine.
  Between 1979 and 1981, nine demonstrators were built, before the first production Olympian entered service with Ribble Motor Services in August 1981.
  The Olympian was initially manufactured at the former Bristol factory in Brislington with the first thousand completed here. In 1983, production transferred to Leyland's Farington and Workington plants. The last was completed for Singapore Bus Service in March 1994.
caption: Preserved Dublin Bus Alexander bodied Olympian in April 2008
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